'Notorious' pirated DVD market pinpointed in Australia by US authority

America's film industry watchdog, the Motion Picture Association of America, has fired a broadside at a number of countries, including Australia, which it has identified as "notorious marketplaces for the distribution of illegal film and television shows".

Australia is a hotbed of DVD piracy and downloading according to US authorities. Photo: Domino Postiglione

The watch list of international marketplaces - a combination of websites, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and actual markets where counterfeit DVDs get sold - was provided by the MPAA to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).

The USTR is the government department which negotiates international trade agreements on behalf of the US.

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Melbourne's Caribbean Gardens and Markets, an outdoor market located in Scoresby, Victoria, was singled out in the report as a "notorious physical market".

The report said Caribbean Gardens had between 10 and 20 individual market sellers "offering counterfeit region one and two DVDs, together with other sellers offering burnt DVDs of recently released titles".

DVDs are generally coded to limit their sale to a single market, with regions numbered one (the US), two (Europe), three (Asia), four (South America and Australia), five (parts of central Asia and Africa) and six (China).

Imported DVDs are popular in Australia because of the easy availability of "multi-region" DVD players, that is, players which have been unlocked and can operate discs from anywhere in the world.

The Australian problem is exacerbated, the report said, due "to a lack of enforcement".

Everything we're selling now is the real McCoy.

According to the MPAA, Australia's state and federal police have "shown no interest in enforcing the issue despite multiple entreaties from right holders," the report said.

Other physical markets identified in the report included the Ukraine's Barabashovo Open Market, China's Hailong Electronics Shopping Mall in Beijing and Northern Ireland's Jonesborough Market.

The MPAA said America's motion picture and television industries support approximately 2 million jobs worth approximately $US104 billion ($109 billion) in total wages.

"The rogue overseas marketplaces highlighted ... undermine the people who work hard to create the movies and TV shows audiences love, and jeopardise the billions of dollars they contribute to the US economy," the MPAA said.

Notorious foreign markets, such as Australia's Caribbean Gardens, are an "immediate threat to legitimate commerce, impairing legitimate markets' viability and curbing US competitiveness," the report said.

In terms and conditions on the Caribbean markets' website, stall holders are forbidden from selling "illegal, counterfeit or stolen products".

Robbie Ager, the operations manager of Caribbean Gardens, told Fairfax Media he believed the information in the report was outdated.

''We do have a bad history,'' he said. ''We used to be notorious for pirated DVDs but that's changed.

''We don't have 10 or 20 DVD retailers; we only have five and all of them sell legitimate discs they have imported from America.''

Mr Ager says in his two years at the Caribbean Gardens, he has ''removed'' a couple of stallholders he believed were selling counterfeit DVDs, and his retailers are quick to report suspected pirates.

''Because my guys are legitimate, and they've paid good money for their DVDs, they don't want anyone selling fakes,'' he said. ''They're always the first to tell me if anyone is selling something that's possibly dodgy.

''It's pretty easy to spot because the discs have a white powder coating on top, no picture, they're in a simple white envelope or the title is written in Texta.

''We've been audited by the government before, we've been working hard to change things and everything we're selling now is the real McCoy.''